A continuation on the bracers I’ve been working on. I decided on a simple pattern of the intersection strips. However, instead of cutting out pieces and gluing them on, I thought I could just use an impression stamp and stamp around the strips. After it is said and none, I don’t think that is the greatest idea, however I am committed to doing it that way for this project now.
It took decent amount of time to stamp in the impressions, a lot longer than I would have liked. It also was much more tiring that I wanted. Constantly hammering with my mallet took a toll. Next time I think it best to cut out strips and glue/sew the pieces on. It wouldn’t be so tiresome and it probably would look better too.
I started to dye it last night as well, no picture taken of that yet. I used Fiebing’s dark brown die. I originally was just going to dye the impressions dark brown, and then the strips with a dark red. But it wasn’t working the way I wanted so the entire piece is first dyed dark brown, front and back. I think afterward’s I’ll go through and dye the strips red, on top of the brown. I have no idea how it will turn out, I think not so great, but I am going to give it a try none-the-less.
The two pieces are currently laying down flat underneath an old college text book to prevent curling while it dries. Probably the most expensive weighted press I could buy (ha, college joke).
I don’t necessarily have an idea of what project I want to work on after the bracers just yet, however if you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I’ll be going to the local ‘Tandy Leather’ shop in the area for the first time in the next couple of days, hopefully I can buy some better tools, primarily a better mallet, edge beveller, and a marble/stone block for stamping. Maybe I can get some ideas for the next project while I’m there. Oh, and they also offer two classes each Saturday I may attend. They have ‘Basic Carving and Tooling’ in the morning, and ‘Introduction to Leathercrafting tools’ in the evening.
Bam's Leather and Craft 